Patna: A special task force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh police on Wednesday arrested a youth from Motihari in East Champaran for allegedly posting morphed pictures of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath on social networking sites and, thus, hurting the sentiments of the people belonging to a particular community.

The police also seized a laptop and a mobile phone from the youth identified as Rahul Ranjan Yadav. A case was earlier lodged with the cyber crime cell of the UP police on complaints of some residents of Lucknow who raised objections over the use of Yogi's morphed pictures on the social media.

Rahul was arrested on the basis of information provided by another youth, who was arrested earlier from Mumbai.

Rahul has been accused of posting an image of a warrior king with the face of Yogi Adityanath on Facebook. Rahul was produced in a Motihari court, which allowed him to be taken to Lucknow on three days' transit remand.

Inspector-general of UP's STF Amitabh Yash confirmed the arrest of Ranjan from East Champaran and said he would be brought to Lucknow on transit remand.

"Legal formalities were being completed to bring the accused to Lucknow from Motihari," the IG, STF, told The Telegraph over phone from Lucknow on Wednesday.

The IG revealed that an FIR was lodged with the cyber crime police station in Lucknow in connection with the incident. The police swung into action and found that the morphed pictures were being posted from Bihar. Subsequently a police team was sent to East Champaran from where Ranjan was arrested.

East Champaran superintendent of police Upendra Kumar Sharma said the local police had no role to play in the investigation of the case. "We cooperated with the UP police team in the arrest of the accused and handed him over to them as no case was pending against the accused in the district," he said over phone.

Accused Ranjan has been booked under sections 353 (A) (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 171 (wearing garb or carrying token used by public servant with fraudulent intent) of IPC and Section 67 of Informational Technology (IT) Act.

A senior police officer said the sections were non-bailable and also of serious nature.